How to Critique a Project that Needs Work

You have been asked to review a special project or a display your daughter put together for the Science Fair. Perhaps it's a presentation your colleague created for a sales meeting. If the project is not up to snuff, now you're faced with a dilemma: should you be brutally honest or brutally dishonest about the quality of the project? Why not try a third alternative, constructive honesty?

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Begin the conversation by asking the project's creator to explain her creation. Many times, the brains behind the project is a vast warehouse of information, and she thinks everyone else has similar access. She may be able to improve the final product very easily by filling in a few blanks.
2. Ask questions that her audience might ask: "What does this mean?" or "How will this work?" Help her to see the project through the eyes of the uninformed.
3. Explain how you see the project: "You seem to be saying . . . " and "Let me see if I understand." Encourage her to correct your misinterpretation. Help her to see how you might have drawn wrong conclusions from the information she has provided.
4. Do everything you can to help her identify the weaknesses in the presentation on her own. Invite her to bounce ideas off you as she makes plans to improve it.
5. If it is absolutely unavoidable, point out the project's most obvious flaws in plain language. Be gentle but direct; your goal is to help her improve her work, not to make her cry. On the other hand, if you dance around the problems, she may not understand where additional effort is
   needed.

Tips & Warnings

• Be as kind as you are helpful. It is pretty easy to avoid hurt feelings if you proceed with care.